Nit-picking (with or without hyphen)

[M. Henri Day]

For obvious reasons, I find this term, defined by our friends at the AHD as

Minute, trivial, unnecessary, and unjustified criticism or faultfinding

to be one of the more appropriate candidates for elevation to the status of GWotD....

Henri

[Slava]

Nice little word, or phrase if you will. I haven't even looked up the etymology, as it seems obvious, but it could be fun to have as a word of the day.

Also, does anyone out there know what Henri's signature says?

[beck123]

... does anyone out there know what Henri's signature says?

Yes, it says, "曾记否，到中流击水，浪遏飞舟?"

[beck123]

Concerning our phrase, picking nits (which are the eggs of lice, glued either near the skin on hair shafts or on the fibers of clothing, depending on which of the three human-infesting lice are the problem) from another's body was probably a very positive thing in early human history. It is still used by the great apes today as a form of social bonding, and the positive (or at least humorous) nature of pediculosis is recorded in fairly recent human documents. Somewhere during the evolution of the phrase, it acquired a negative connotation, probably when we discovered that body lice transmit epidemic typhus and other less-than-humorous maladies.

[Slava]

... does anyone out there know what Henri's signature says?

Yes, it says, "曾记否，到中流击水，浪遏飞舟?"

Cute.

[beck123]

My stepchild is studying Chinese in high school. I've asked him to have his teacher translate for us. We'll see what comes of that.

[LukeJavan8]

Google translate says:

"Does anyone remember the mid-stream splashing in
to the water, the waves suppressed Feizhow".

OOOOO-kay!

[LukeJavan8]

Babelfish says:


"Once recorded otherwise
strikes the water to the average,
the waves stops flies the boat".

[LukeJavan8]

Systrans says:



"Once recorded otherwise,
strikes the water to average,
the wave strikes the flying boat?"

[beck123]

I posted a sensible translation to this elsewhere - I forget where. It's a poem, and quite beautiful. I will now recreate it from memory, and, in the process, strip it of any beauty it may have originally held:

"Do you remember?
The current beating along the coast
With our boat moving through the waves, as though flying?"

I would attribute this to a Haitian refugee, but few of them likely speak (let alone write) Chinese.

[LukeJavan8]

Definitely quite pretty.
And I guess I don't remember your posting it elsewhere.
Bablefish, et. al. sure lose in the translation.